Raymond of Peñafort

Summa de casibus poenitentiae et matrimonio.

Description:
Illuminated manuscript on parchment, written in two columns with 26 lines per page, calligraphic descenders on the bottom line occasionally contain human heads, lemma underlined in red, capitals stroked in red, paraphs and running titles in characters alternately red or blue, rubrics in red, with guides to the rubricator by the scribe in a cursive script usually surviving in the lower margin, one surviving illuminated historiated initial (doubtless of an original four), two-line initials in blue with red penwork, or vice versa, 3 missing leaves (and with them, probably, historiated initials),
253 text leaves, c.129×95mm,
early 16th century brown leather over pasteboards, the spine lined with a piece of 13th-century parchment manuscript and the back board covered with a piece of 15th-century manuscript on paper, both only partially visible, the covers blind-stamped with a panel containing a lattice, the interstices each with a plant motif, traces of two ties at the fore-edge, the fore-edge inscribed with a title "Exceptio Su(m)me / de casibus"(?); the spine with a paper label inscribed with an 18th(?)-century shelfmark "I / F", worn, spine partly defective, textblock rounded forwards, in a modern leather fitted box, the spine lettered in gilt capitals "Summa de Casibus / Poenitentiae // Summa de / Matrimonio // Raymond de Pnaforte // MS. on vellum / Northern France / ca. 1300"

Publication Details:
France (Paris or Burgundy?): c. 1270

Notes:'After compiling and organizing a major collection of Church law, 1234, Raymond of Penyafort drew on that collection to compose a comprehensive summary of the teaching of marriage. He did this to aid his Dominican brothers in the hearing of confessions where numerous problems touching on marriage would have been encountered. After dealing with the ideas of engagement and marriage, Raymond treats of the impediments to a valid marriage. These were conditions whose presence made a marriage null and void, such as force in giving consent, the impossibility of sexual intercourse, and prohibited degr...more'After compiling and organizing a major collection of Church law, 1234, Raymond of Penyafort drew on that collection to compose a comprehensive summary of the teaching of marriage. He did this to aid his Dominican brothers in the hearing of confessions where numerous problems touching on marriage would have been encountered. After dealing with the ideas of engagement and marriage, Raymond treats of the impediments to a valid marriage. These were conditions whose presence made a marriage null and void, such as force in giving consent, the impossibility of sexual intercourse, and prohibited degrees of relationship. The work concludes with an overview of such matters as procedures for obtaining a seporation because of adultery, the legitimacy of children, and dowries ... [thus providing a unique view of a comprehensive presentation of the medieval teaching on marriage–learned in content, practical in rientation' (Pierre J. Payer, introduction to his translation of the Summa on Marriage, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2005).Raymond died in 1275, and therefore this attractive, well-preserved, MS more than likely dates from his lifetime. One of the interesting features of this volume is the variety of methods it employs for helping readers find their way around: tables of contents and an alphabetical index, ink folio numbers in recto fore-edge margins and corresponding pencil numbers on versos, running headers in the upper margin indicating the Book number ("L I", "L II", etc., and chapter numbers in red and blue capitals in the upper outer margins ("C I", "C II", etc.).Full physical description, provenance &c available on request.HIDE